Tomatoes and mushrooms are naturally high in umami flavours, as is miso paste. The combination creates a deliciously savoury and simple pasta dish, perfect for quick meals. The recipe is from The Ultimate Japanese Noodles Cookbook by Masahiro Kasahara. You can switch the nameko mushrooms out for other varieties if you can’t find nameko. Tomatoes ... Read more »
Japanese Aubergine and Beef cooked in Miso
Aubergine and beef are both popular ingredients in Japanese cooking, as is the delicious savoury condiment and cooking ingredient, miso. In this recipe from Harumi’s Japanese Kitchen aubergine and beef are simmered in a sauce flavoured with miso paste and chilli bean paste Learn all about miso, including how it’s made and used, in our in-depth ... Read more »
Maple Miso Tahini Sauce | A Delicious Dressing, Dip & Sauce
This delicious Maple Miso Tahini sauce is inspired by Japanese ingredients and flavours. Miso paste and sesame are so good together – I recently enjoyed the combination as a dipping sauce for cold udon noodles. To pull these flavours together as a sauce-cum-dressing I combine tahini with the intense, sweet flavour of extra dark maple ... Read more »
Recipe: Japanese-Style Mabo Dofu (Tofu with Spicy Miso Pork Sauce)
You may already have read my recent review of The Japanese Larder by chef, food writer and supperclub host Luiz Hara. The publishers have kindly given permission to share three great recipes from the book with you. The first, for crispy and deeply savoury Marmite Chicken, is already up. Here’s Luiz’ Japanese-style mabo dofu. And the third, ... Read more »
Stir-Fried Negi with Miso and Pork
If you want to get to the heart of Japanese home cooking, you will surely appreciate Phaidon’s most recent Country Cookbook, Japan: The Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu. This hefty collection of over 400 recipes showcases the breadth of Japanese home-cooking today, and is a great reference book for any cook keen on the cuisine. Read ... Read more »
A Taste For… Miso | Japanese-Style Miso Cod
Are you familiar with umami? Discovered (and named) by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda back in 1908 and known as the fifth taste group (alongside sweet, sour, bitter and salty), umami is most commonly translated as ‘savoury’ or ‘meaty’ and is a flavour profile that most of us enjoy in our food, whether or not we ... Read more »
Nori-Wrapped Hot Smoked Salmon Cubes With Miso Mayonnaise
For me, mayonnaise is indelibly associated with the summer; an integral part of food eaten outside. The picnic rugs and garden tables of my childhood were laden with bacon and mayo-dressed potato-salad, rich and creamy coleslaws, a huge bowl of tuna-sweetcorn-mayo and a bottle of homemade Marie Rose sauce to slather over burgers and sausages ... Read more »
Saya Ingen Shira-ae | Green Beans with Tofu, Miso & Sesame Dressing
Traditionally, the key ingredients in the Japanese dish shira-ae are white – white tofu, white miso and white sesame seeds; shiro means white in Japanese and the ae suffix denotes a vegetable dish with dressing. What’s unusual from my European perspective is the low amount of liquid ingredients in the dressing; the silken tofu provides ... Read more »
Simple Miso Cod with Sesame Pak Choi
Thanks to a sample of Skrei from the Norwegian Seafood Council, we’ve been enjoying more fish, specifically cod, of late. One portion was stir-fried with mirin and chives, another was battered and deep fried and one smaller portion was stretched into a filling fish, leek and egg pie. Next on the list was miso cod. ... Read more »